Craigslist Rescue Mystery Chicken

Wingleader

Chirping
7 Years
Sep 1, 2012
130
19
93
Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania
My Coop
My Coop
Hey all!




I've got a mystery chicken that I will be picking up (and putting in quarantine for a good long while before releasing to the rest of my flock) from someone on Craigslist. Not sure what breed, or even what gender, but I do have a picture that was texted to me of the poor thing. It was a young girl who just happened to "find" the chicken and she has no idea how to take care of it which is how it ended up on craigslist. Hopefully I can add it to my flock, but at the very least, I can be a foster home for it until it does find a permanent home.

I'm no expert on chicken breeds, so any help would be appreciated! Thanks! I'll have more pictures this evening after I pick him/her up.
 
That comb shape suggests to me that it is a mixed breed. Might have some meaty blood, due to the size[though the crop looks full in the picture, making the bird look bigger, so could well just be a heavy breed mix], but it looks pretty nicely feathered, so it seems to be able to keep up with its growth. I'm leaning towards it being a male, looks like a lot of red for a young bird, though without knowing the exact age I can not be completely sure. The pointy feathers at the neck seems a bit suspect, too.
 
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Better photos would help, but it looks like it could be a White Rock or mixed breed. Without knowing age, or having a side-profile photo, I can't tell the gender.
 
Okay, no photos yet, the poor thing is sleeping. It was in a very old, very rusty chicken wire cage and had been getting terrorized by a dog so it's feet are all bloodied up from trying to scratch through the wire. From what I can see it's probably a little rooster. It has a rather large single comb and some extremely thick legs. We also passed a Tyson chicken processing plant on our way to pick the thing up and judging from the fact that the plant was no more than half a mile from the house has me thinking it's definitely a production meat bird. An escaped meat bird.

I know these chickens are bred to be butchered at a certain young age, but I'm curious if anyone has had any success skirting the leg strength to bird weight issue and successfully added such a critter to their flock. I'm not keen on butchering a bird of mine for meat, but if it's going to live a horribly painful life, so be it. The little fellow must never have seen straw before, because he was absolutely fascinated by it. It was quite endearing, honestly.
 
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Okay, no photos yet, the poor thing is sleeping. It was in a very old, very rusty chicken wire cage and had been getting terrorized by a dog so it's feet are all bloodied up from trying to scratch through the wire. From what I can see it's probably a little rooster. It has a rather large single comb and some extremely thick legs. We also passed a Tyson chicken processing plant on our way to pick the thing up and judging from the fact that the plant was no more than half a mile from the house has me thinking it's definitely a production meat bird. An escaped meat bird.

I know these chickens are bred to be butchered at a certain young age, but I'm curious if anyone has had any success skirting the leg strength to bird weight issue and successfully added such a critter to their flock. I'm not keen on butchering a bird of mine for meat, but if it's going to live a horribly painful life, so be it. The little fellow must never have seen straw before, because he was absolutely fascinated by it. It was quite endearing, honestly.
I know someone in Indiana who has raised a pair of meat birds with their flock. They can lead a normal chicken life, you just have to maintain their diet.This person still has her hen and she get lots of big eggs from her and she is around 2. It can be done, just a little extra work
 






Alright, here's some more pictures of the rescued chicken. The more I spend time around this fellow, the more I feel that it was an escaped meat bird from a large chicken processing plant. He's awkward as heck on his gigantic legs, he scarfs his food like the world was coming to an end, he had no idea what to do with the straw bedding I gave him, he's not so great at drinking out of a normal chicken waterer... and I could probably go on.

Now, if I were to attempt to add this one to my flock, do you think there's a high risk of him carrying something nasty, like Marek's? If he was a production bird, he was most likely vaccinated against it and won't show any symptoms even if he's a carrier. I absolutely don't want to put my current birds at risk, so is there a way to tell without picking an unlucky hen to be the guinea pig for a few weeks with him?
 
Definately a meat bird. And something about him just doesn't look very helpful. Almost looks dehydrated or something. His comb and wattles look pale. I wouldn't put him with your flock for a good month. You need to quarentine. And before you put him with your flock, take one of your chickens (I would choose your least favorite) and put it with him. This way if he has something that chicken will start to show symptoms and you will only be infecting one other versus your whole flock.
 
You only need to put the hen in with a week for him. If he isn't showing symptoms. You wither have to choose one and take the chance or take the chance with your whole flock
 

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